Zoltan Istvan

At the age of 21, American-Hungarian Zoltan began a solo,
multi-year sailing journey around the world. His main cargo was 500
handpicked books, mostly classics. He’s explored over 100 countries
— many
as a journalist for the National Geographic Channel — writing,
filming,
and appearing in dozens of television stories, articles, and webcasts.

His work has also been featured by The New York Times Syndicate,
Outside, San Francisco Chronicle, BBC Radio, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Animal
Planet, and the Travel Channel. In addition to his award-winning
coverage of the war in Kashmir, he gained worldwide attention for
pioneering and popularizing the extreme sport of volcano boarding.

Zoltan later became a director for the international conservation group
WildAid, leading armed patrol units to stop the billion-dollar illegal
wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. Back in America, he started various
successful businesses, from real estate development to filmmaking to
viticulture, joining them under ZI Ventures.

He is a
philosophy and
religious studies graduate of Columbia University and resides in San
Francisco with his daughter and physician wife.